Top Turkish diplomat vows to clean Foreign Ministry of Gülenist diplomats

ANKARA

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has vowed to purge diplomats with links to the Fethullah Gülen organization from his ministry, as part of the government’s massive campaign to clean the state of Gülenists after the July 15 failed coup attempt. 

“We will clear the state of this gang because they have infiltrated the state through treacherous plans. For example, my ministry, the Foreign Ministry… for ages the selection process for the ministry was based on open-ended questions and translation from Turkish into English. But those belonging to this parallel gang changed the selection system into a multiple choice test after getting control of the personnel department,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters late July 23 in Antalya. 

“They have imposed the hardest questions ever in the history of the ministry so that only their members who have been provided with the answers beforehand can pass the exam. None of them has the foreign language capability or capacity [to be a diplomat],” he added. 

“Now, can I work comfortably as the foreign minister before I fully clean these traitors from my ministry? Would you entrust the memory and secrets of the state to these people? I would not. I will do whatever necessary within the law,” Çavuşoğlu stressed. 

Although thousands of civil servants with links to the Gülenist organization within the state have been removed since the July 15 failed coup attempt, there had been no report about any action taken in the foreign ministry. Çavuşoğlu’s statement, however, shows that a probe has already been launched at the ministry to examine past appointments. 

The state cannot tolerate those who have betrayed their own people, the minister said, criticizing Europeans who have issued calls to the Turkish government to stop the purge. “I am obligated to provide the security of my state and my people,” he said, “Therefore we’ll clean them of the state and ask them to pay the price for what they did.”

Turkey urges Kyrgyzstan

After the attempted coup, some countries like Azerbaijan began to take actions against the Gülenist organization in their territories, Çavuşoğlu said, informing that he had contacted his Kyrgyz counterpart as well. 

“Kyrgyzstan is one of the places where this gang is very powerful. I told my Kyrgyz brother, ‘The way we look at you will be different if you do not take measures against them. Our expectation from our brother is not [for them] to protect those who attempted [a coup] on your brother. You should show your brotherhood to us in these difficult days,’” he said.